This session will provide an opportunity for participants to reflect on the drivers that shape how they approach and conduct evaluations. Our active learning approach will enable participants to explore how their assumptions, values, and preferences shape the selection of evaluation models or theories, and in turn, how these paradigms shape their evaluation practice, consciously or subconsciously. Both emerging and established evaluators will benefit from this session, which will include individual activities, group discussions and presentations from our three speakers.

Isabelle Bourgeois, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa
Dr. Isabelle Bourgeois is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa. Her ongoing research work focuses on measuring and building organizational evaluation capacity (EC) in the public and community sectors. She is currently the Principal Investigator of the LaboEval, a laboratory engaged in the study of EC in community-based organizations. In 2017, she received the Karl Boudreault Award for Leadership in Evaluation from the National Capital Chapter of the Canadian Evaluation Society.

François Dumaine, Partner, PRA Inc.
François Dumaine is a Partner at PRA Inc. He served as President of CES and as Chair of the CES Educational Fund, and is a CES Fellow.

Jane Whynot, Partner, Goss Gilroy Inc.
Dr. Jane Whynot is currently a partner at Goss Gilroy Inc. (GGI) and leads their social-cultural line of business. Dr. Whynot has provided performance measurement and evaluation expertise through consulting engagements to both the federal government and the non-profit sector for almost 25 years. She holds a PhD from the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies at the University of Ottawa; her area of research regards the integration of Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+) in the Canadian federal government evaluation system. This research builds on a Masters of Assessment and Evaluation (University of Melbourne), and a graduate certificate in Policy and Program Evaluation (Carleton University). She currently holds adjunct status at Carleton University and teaches Qualitative Methods in Evaluation. Dr. Whynot has served the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) National Capital Chapter in various roles including Secretary, Vice-President, President and Past-President until 2019.